Reprinted with permission from:MAIL: The Journal of Communication Distribution

RELIABLE Mail Service is the National Guard for business mailers in New York and New Jersey. When a company faces an insurmountable challenge they call RELIABLE, and within 24-hours an army of mail professionals arrives onsite and conquers the assignment.

Such was the case for a leading financial firm that contacted RELIABLE when the logistics and mailing requirements for a project that consisted of over 400 separate groups in a single mailing overwhelmed their in-house staff.

After meeting with the senior executives to determine the work flow and staffing requirements, RELIABLE devised a plan of attack that called for the company to provide all mailing machine inserter operators, coordinate inventories of stock, and utilize optimum performance standards for each mailing group. This portion of the job utilized over 40 RELIABLE Mail Service personnel during a two-week period. RELIABLE was then tasked with the Business Reply return tabulation. This project required over 100 personnel per shift on a two-shift workday and continued for a five-week period. "This job actually turned out to be the largest mailing of its type in history and RELIABLE ensured it was a success for our customer by enacting I00% quality controls during each facet," said Bruce Dobin, founder and president of RELIABLE Mail Service.

Mr. Dobin, who formed RELIABLE Mail Service in 1986, described the company as a co-sourcing agent dedicated solely to the mailing community. "RELIABLE dispatches trained mailing experts who actually go on-site and aid corporate mailing customers. We call this approach 'RELIABLE Co-Sourcing'," said Mr. Dobin. "Many of our customers are financial institutions who must retain their checks, dividend statements, and confidential documents in-house."

"During peak mailing periods, these customers need to expand their internal labor force, but need individuals who can come in and get the job completed exactly per U.S. Postal Service specifications. That's where RELIABLE comes in: from inserting the mail, to pre-barcoding the mail for postal discounts, to presorting the mail, to parcel preparation, to fulfillment and even performing a variety of hand-assembly functions," he said. "Our job is to prepare the customer's mail on-time and on-budget."

This description comes to life in looking at the work RELIABLE Mail Service performs for Computershare. RELIABLE encloses and presorts over 100 million letters and flats on an annual basis for Computershare - a long-standing customer and the world's leading shareholder services provider, with 26 million shareholder accounts and 1,400 corporate clients in the United States alone.

"When one speaks of 'business partners', that truly describes the alliance between RELIABLE Mail Service and Computershare," said Mr. Dobin. "We do whatever is needed to support Computershare. Whether it is providing five people today and 200 people tomorrow to make a deadline, or securing an off-site building to perform proxy functions following a power outage, we will do anything for Computershare to provide instant service."

This power outage and the subsequent securing of an off-site building that Mr. Dobin spoke of, has since lead RELIABLE to open their own hotsite in Edison, New Jersey.

"The intention of acquiring this 10,000 square foot facility was to assist customers with projects that were too considerable for their current space. Similar to providing extra support personnel on location to assist with expanded staffing needs, we can now offer additional space to complete projects that require this extra capacity," explained Mr. Dobin.

He described how this facility recently helped a company with a highly sensitive mailing. The customer did not initially have all the information needed to plan the mailing effectively and efficiently. Moreover, because of its size, the job needed to be prepared at the customer's location but have final insertion performed at RELIABLE's hotsite.

The opening of a hotsite is one of the changes RELIABLE Mail Service has made during the past few years to keep pace with evolving customer needs. But, whereas most articles in The Journal would detail how the company added equipment to keep pace with customers, that is not the case at RELIABLE. Here, employees remain the key to the company's success.

Another key point, which distinguishes RELIABLE, is a team approach to staffing. Each team that is sent into a customer's location is managed by a RELIABLE Mail Service supervisor and includes dedicated Quality Control personnel who ensure the job is being done exactly per the customer's requirements.

"We take a very demanding approach towards Quality Assurance," said Mr. Dobin. "Our Quality Assurance Program includes frequent daily communication between our on-site supervisors and our quality assurance managers. Additionally, we have committed an entire division within our executive strata that monitors and maintains Total Quality Assurance."

Beyond communicating with employees and customers, the executives at RELIABLE are also focused on communicating with the Postal Service and professional mail colleagues.

"We are in a fortunate position as a result of our involvement in organizations such as Mail Systems Management Association and Postal Customer Councils," said Mr. Dobin.

"RELIABLE successfully satisfies the needs of advanced technology, personnel enhancement and resolve of postal issues through our business partnerships and these mail associated organizations," said Mr. Dobin.

In summing up the RELIABLE's business objective, Mr. Dobin said his company allows customers to concentrate on their specific duties and not worry that a mailing or project will be done inaccurately or miss a critical deadline.

For these companies, RELIABLE comes in and gets the job done — just like the National Guard.